Sir

In its recently-issued Second Report, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security makes worthy proposals for legislation relating to climate change.

It argues in some detail for provisions to encourage energy conservation and renewable energy, two of the three major means for combating climate change. The third means is nuclear energy, which supplies 16 per cent of the world's electricity without significant carbon emissions.

It is therefore disappointing that in its legislative proposals, the report makes no mention of the need to repeal the egregious statutory prohibition on the use of nuclear energy for the generation of electricity in this country.

It is noteworthy that in submissions to the committee, Eirgrid reported that a study it has commissioned on future energy provision will include consideration of nuclear energy; while the Commission for Energy Regulation argued that "the costs and benefits of nuclear generation in an Irish context should be fully studied".

Tom O'Flaherty, PhD CEng FIEI, FIET
David Sowby, MD, FSRP
Frank Turvey, C Eng; F Inst P, FIAE, FIEI, FINucE
Philip Walton, Emeritus Professor, PhD, FIET, F Inst P